T-Servo:redmid17: For one thing, he and other industry executives said, standard cabin noise covers up much conversational noise, yet people with cellphones pressed to their ears in that environment somehow do not feel the need to speak louder to compensate.

That's BS. Maybe in some cultures, but in the US? Go to an airport business lounge and listen to the paunchy, middle-aged marketing execs speaking into their phones like they're Titanic-era shipboard speaking tubes... it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what they'd be like on planes. And if you lack that imagination, try a train in the UK.

I call it Al Pacino syndrome.

I'M TALKING LOUD SO IT MUST BE IMPORTANT!!! I'M IMPORTANT SO I MUST TALK LOUD!!!!

Let's see... what is essentially a Faraday cage designed to contain several high-power radios and fly in the upper atmosphere where it is subject to all kinds of radiation we don't see on the ground may be hardened against Joe Bleau's GameBoy.